Ham radio for people with disabilities. A weekly podcast from the Courage Handiham System, http://handiham.org.
Ham radio topics, including accessible equipment, blind ham radio, events, policy in the Amateur Radio Service, more.

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Welcome to Handiham World!

Photo: Where's the antenna? Believe it of not, there is a "W0OXB Special" antenna in this photo, and it tunes 160 meters through 6 meters! There are a lot of trees on the property, so hanging the antenna was not a problem. The foliage also confuses the eye and effectively hides the wire antenna, which is in excess of 200 feet long and fed with 450 Ohm ladder line to a 4:1 current balun. If you look closely, you will see the feedline just to the left of the guy standing on the garage roof.

Last Saturday I had fun participating in a good old-fashioned "antenna party". These antenna raising projects are loosely coordinated through our local radio club, and I hadn't been along on one for quite some time. We had plenty of help, but as the old saying goes, "many hands make light work". It was certainly instructive to help, and I learned more about how to launch wires and pull them high up into the tree branches, how to use a guide rope to pull the center insulator and feedline away from branches, and especially the detail work on the center insulator strain relief and weather sealing. One tip from Dave, W0OXB: If you use high quality UV-resistant rope to tie off the ends of the antenna, there is really no need for end insulators. Putting on end insulators is just asking for them to get stuck in the tree branches.

Anyway, this story isn't really about the antenna party. It's about the final result, which (for those of you who can see the photo) is an all but completely invisible wire antenna capable of operating on the HF bands, including 160 meters! The QTH sporting the new antenna is on a corner lot, and the antenna runs diagonally across it, supported by mature trees. The 450 Ohm ladder line comes down from the center of the antenna, angling over the single-story garage's roof and to a current balun mounted on the soffit of the house, somewhat protected from the weather. Although this kind of feedline would be painfully obvious, coming as it does down from a point over the front yard, a clump of birch trees effectively hides it from anyone but the most determined observer. The result is an excellent, versatile antenna that can be used on multiple bands without being an eyesore.

The single biggest obstacle to effective HF operation today is the difficulty many amateur radio operators have getting an antenna up in the air! If only it were as simple as just ordering an antenna and installing it... But it isn't easy at all. There are antenna restrictions of all sorts, and they are not all formal regulations, either. The restrictions that get the most attention in the amateur radio media are those that are codified in municipal ordinances or that are part of homeowner association covenants. The ARRL offers resources on working through such restrictions, and each instance is likely to be somewhat unique.

There are other, but no less real, obstacles to getting an HF antenna up. Consider these:

Aesthetics. The antenna will be unsightly. Yes, you and I know that a good antenna is a thing of beauty, but your spouse and neighbors may not like seeing that monstrosity in the blue sky above your ham shack. This is an especially relevant concern these days when traditional TV antennas have pretty much disappeared because of TV cable and small satellite TV dish antennas. The TV antenna free clean look of the typical suburban roofline makes that HF antenna stick out like a sore thumb!

Power lines! They run where they run, and that is often exactly in the wrong place when HF antenna installation is concerned. Older neighborhoods typically have lines running along alleyways at the rear or side of a property. Power lines might also line the street in front of the house. The "drop" from the main power pole to the house sometimes crosses large sections of the property. You cannot safely run wire antennas above or below power lines, and running your antenna parallel to a power line may result in a higher than average interference from power line noise.

No antenna supports. Your lot may just not have any natural place to support a wire antenna. The trees may be too small or in the wrong places.

Budget! Your budget may not be generous enough to have a tower in the back yard. Like it or not, you may have to make do with less.

Space. Actually, it's the lack thereof! Most city lots are a challenge when you are talking about getting wire antennas up for bands like 160 and 75 meters, but some are really, really small.

Well, what are the options? Before deciding on your own, it might be best to get another opinion. That's part of the process for my club's "MAP", or "Member Assistance Program". We didn't all just show up at the guy's house last Saturday with a bunch of wire and tools. Prior to the antenna party, a separate "antenna assessment" had been done. This is usually completed weeks before the actual installation, and it involves a visit by a knowledgeable team leader. The MAP team leader will walk through the property, measuring the distances between likely antenna supports and planning different installation scenarios. If the situation is hopeless, you might as well find it out from someone who will have other ideas and be able to offer you some alternatives. You might be surprised at how you really can fit an antenna into the space available, but without the practiced eye of the team leader you might have never known.

Vertical antennas can fit in small spaces and when positioned in the back yard can also be invisible from the street in front. Most designs do require at least some radials, but a few don't. You might consider one of the new 43 foot verticals fed with a current balun at the base. I see in the September QST that LDG now has one for under $200. This antenna design, available from LDG and other companies, allows you to operate on 80 through 6 meters with one antenna. True, you will not get on the "top band" (160 m), but you will have good coverage on the other bands and will be able to make use of most bands on your HF radio. If a wire antenna won't fit, a vertical might.

Sometimes there are just no options outdoors, but an attic antenna might be possible. These are generally good for 14 MHz and above, because there will not be enough space to fit antennas for the lower frequencies in an attic space. I really don't like attic antennas much, because they are often hard to install in unfinished attic spaces. The space may be cramped and unlighted, and you may need to step carefully on rafters so as not to put your foot through the ceiling below. Running feed lines can also be challenging. Attic antennas are most suited to digital low power operation, such as QRP CW or PSK-31.

Mobile or portable operation might be viable choices. There are small antennas designed for backpacking into the wilderness - you might be able to operate with one of them set up in whatever space you have available, even at home. Be prepared for some difficult copy and some tough times breaking pileups, though. These are not the most efficient antennas, and because they usually are inductively loaded, they have narrow - almost single frequency - bandwidth without tuning. One special type of portable antenna is the simple end-fed wire. It can be thrown up into a tree at a campsite and tuned with an antenna tuner. Some tuners are automatic and match a wide variety of antennas. Mobile antennas suffer from the same limitations. They are physically short and have very sharp tuning. They are also not terribly efficient. Still, they can offer you a way to get on the air.

Remote base operation is an option for Handiham members with computers with Microsoft Windows® and high-speed internet. Sometimes a mixture of operation from a home station and a remote base station is the way to go. For example, you may have room for an antenna that operates on 14 MHz and above, but not enough room for a wire antenna that would be effective on 3.9 MHz. To get on that 75 meter net you like, you can then use either of the W0ZSW or W0EQO remote base stations. The remotes are a Handiham member service. Both stations have excellent wire antennas and are located in RF-quiet areas.

I guess the point is that you can get on the HF bands one way or the other. Getting help while assessing your antenna situation is a good first step. Even if your local club does not have a member assistance program, you can still speak up at the club meeting and ask if there might be any volunteers who might know about antennas and who could help you decide how to best use your available space. If stealth is an issue and you need to camouflage the antenna, the club members will usually have some ideas and suggestions. Just don't give up! If you want to get on the HF bands, there is a way to do it.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Welcome to Handiham World!

We're back!

In praise of summer nets:

August is usually not a high activity month in ham radio anyway, so what the heck, maybe not that many people noticed if the local radio club didn't have regular meetings during the summer. They were probably all on vacation or harvesting the vegetables from their gardens.

Still, key members of radio clubs are waking up and thinking to themselves, "Holy cow, it's almost September and the club's first meeting of the new ham radio season is almost here. We've got to start on the club newsletter! Plan the business meeting agenda! Who's in charge of the club program? Yikes, how are we going to get all this stuff done?"

Yes, it's that time again, time to plan for the Autumn and Winter months, when ham radio interest will be higher than the snow bank outside my window here in Minnesota. Last week I attended a planning meeting with some of my fellow radio club members. We talked about the upcoming membership meeting, the newsletter, and what direction the club would take in the upcoming months. We are already planning to teach a General Class course this Autumn. My local club, the Stillwater (MN) Amateur Radio Association, has a strategy of offering Technician training in the Spring to coincide with Skywarn training prior to the summer severe weather season and a General Class upgrade course in the Autumn when our Technicians from the previous Spring may be interested in learning more about amateur radio and the HF bands. Many clubs take a three month summer break like ours, though June, with ARRL Field Day, is still quite busy. It is just the regular meetings and the newsletter that "go on vacation" for the summer break. Other club activities, like the local HF and VHF nets, remain active throughout the year.

One of the tricks to remember about keeping your radio club active and healthy is to ALWAYS have something going on, even during the summer. Regularly scheduled activities are going to provide the continuity that will keep members from drifting away over the summer and never coming back. Now, I'm not talking about elaborate dog and pony shows here. You don't have to organize special meetings or events. Simply having an evening net, even an informal gathering without a net control, can be good enough. Scheduled nets are good, too. Some clubs have a regular monthly breakfast or lunch, all of which is informal and completely optional, which is just perfect for summertime when plans can change at a moment's notice. At the Handiham Radio Club we have our daily EchoLink net. The important thing is to keep club members connected with simple, easy, optional, low-commitment activities that require almost no planning or effort.

While large, elaborate activities like summer hamfests or special event stations are fun and can sometimes be the highlight of the summer, not all club activities need be so ambitious. If you set the standard too high, an elaborate event can burn volunteers out. If such events take place once in a while, that is one thing. If they are scheduled every summer and the same volunteers are expected to manage them again and again, you should not be surprised to find that one summer will come along when everyone is just too busy to plan or be part of the event. The easy to plan informal on the air get-together or regular net can be the glue that holds your club together over the summer. Don't sell it short!

But first - Help us win the Dr. Dave Challenge!

Thanks to Chris Peterson, KG0BP, for taking advantage of his employer's regular automatic donation system. Chris has been helping us out with regular contributions. In fact, quite a few companies have such donation programs, and they can make supporting non-profit causes like the Handiham System easy and quick. Check with your employer to see if this option might be available to you. Thanks also to Bob, N0HBC.Money is tight these days and we desperately need your support. Now, thanks to a generous challenge grant by Dr. Dave Justis, KN0S, we have a chance to help fill the budget gap. Dr. Dave will donate $5,000 to the Handiham System if we can raise a matching amount. That means we need to really put the fund-raising into high gear! If you can help, designate a donation to Handihams, stating that it is for the "Dr. Dave Challenge". We will keep you posted in our weekly e-letter as to the progress of the fund. Nancy can take credit card donations via the toll-free number, 1-866-426-3442, or accept checks sent to our Courage Center Handiham address:Courage Handiham System
3915 Golden Valley Road
Golden Valley, MN 55422Be sure to put a note saying "Dr. Dave Challenge" somewhere in the envelope or on the note line of the check. If you donate online as detailed toward the end of your weekly e-letter, be sure to designate to Handihams and then send me an email letting me know you donated to the Dr. Dave fund: wa0tda@arrl.net. Thank you so much for your support!

Wednesday, August 03, 2011

Welcome to Handiham World!

Photo: Butternut vertical at the WA0TDA QTH is covered with snow. Maybe this "cool" picture will help us all get through this spell of hot, humid summer weather!

Handiham Radio Camp begins on Monday, 8 August. The weather across most of North America has been uncommonly hot, often setting new temperature records. Fortunately we did get a nice weather break today here in Minnesota as the humidity dropped a bit and the morning temperature was in the low 60's Fahrenheit. Of course we would like to see nice, comfortable weather during our week at Camp Courage, but there is another reason I look forward to less heat and humidity in the atmosphere: there will be less interference from thunderstorms! Thunderstorm static is a common problem for amateur radio operators who enjoy making contacts on the lower frequency HF bands. The 75 m band is still somewhat usable during the summer months, but it does take patience to put up with all of the static from storms that are sometimes hundreds of miles away. Add to that the long summer days when absorption gets really high and makes signals so attenuated that they really have a hard time competing with the static crashes and you really have quite a challenging radio environment. Believe it or not, some amateur radio operators still even make contacts on the 160 m band during the summer. That is the absolute worst of our HF bands during the high summer season because it is most affected by absorption and QRN.

Sometimes it makes sense to simply shift gears and try some other bands and modes of operation. I really like staying in touch with my friends on the EchoLink-enabled repeaters and even through EchoLink on my computer or smart phone. Summertime can be an excellent time to start listening on the VHF bands, too. June is typically a good month to experiment with making single side band contacts on the 6 m band. As summer continues to unfold and you get into July and August, you may find that it is possible to make single side band contacts on the 2 m band. If you like CW, you may find others who share your interest on VHF over the summer months. Summertime conditions, while bad for HF operation, can sometimes make for excellent long-distance contacts on VHF.

Another excellent summertime amateur radio activity is to do an antenna assessment and make a list of everything that needs doing to keep your station on the air before the cold winter months arrive. Believe me, I have done antenna work in every single month of the year and it is much easier to strip wires, put on connectors, climb ladders or towers, and handle aluminum tubing during the summer! A big antenna installation almost has to be done in the summer months when there is good weather and adequate daylight after dinner, when help may be available from other radio club members.

Speaking of antennas, I had to take down two of my wire antennas earlier this week. There was a dead tree in the backyard and I had made arrangements with a tree guy to come over and cut it down as well as do some trimming of the other trees around our property here at the home QTH. Well, I was surprised when the tree guy called and told me he had an opening on Monday, so he would be able to come right over that morning and do the work. "Sure", I said, before remembering that both of my wire antennas either ran through the tree that needed to come down or close to it. So I ended up having to rush outside and try to get the antennas down in the half-hour to 45 minutes before the tree crew arrived. That turned out to be a decision point, because I had already taken part in an antenna assessment earlier this summer and with help from my local radio club will get a new, longer wire antenna installed. That made it easy to just go get my extendable tree branch pruner and cut the old antennas right down without doing any climbing. That leaves me with my trusty Butternut nine band HF vertical ground-mounted in the backyard. The good news was that I had already completed my summer maintenance on the vertical and it was ready to go for use as my main HF antenna. It had needed replacement of one section of cracked aluminum tubing and the addition of new radials. Had I not followed my summer plan of getting antenna maintenance started early, I might have been off the air right now except for the VHF and UHF bands.

I guess the moral of the story is that it pays to have a plan and to get things done earlier rather than later when at all possible. You never know what might be coming up later today, next week, next month, or next year. It doesn't hurt to build in a little planning and redundancy when it comes to amateur radio!

But first - Help us win the Dr. Dave Challenge!

Thanks to Diane WI8K, Dan N8OJW, and Gary KB9ZUV for your help this past week. We appreciate your support.Money is tight these days and we desperately need your support. Now, thanks to a generous challenge grant by Dr. Dave Justis, KN0S, we have a chance to help fill the budget gap. Dr. Dave will donate $5,000 to the Handiham System if we can raise a matching amount. That means we need to really put the fund-raising into high gear! If you can help, designate a donation to Handihams, stating that it is for the "Dr. Dave Challenge". We will keep you posted in our weekly e-letter as to the progress of the fund. Nancy can take credit card donations via the toll-free number, 1-866-426-3442, or accept checks sent to our Courage Center Handiham address:Courage Handiham System
3915 Golden Valley Road
Golden Valley, MN 55422Be sure to put a note saying "Dr. Dave Challenge" somewhere in the envelope or on the note line of the check. If you donate online as detailed toward the end of your weekly e-letter, be sure to designate to Handihams and then send me an email letting me know you donated to the Dr. Dave fund: wa0tda@arrl.net. Thank you so much for your support!

The FCC is going to entertain the possibility of allowing examination credit for expired ham radio licenses and is seeking comments on the matter. As we know, if your license expires and is beyond the two year grace period, you must start all over again with the Technician exam and work your way back up to whatever your former license level was, taking every exam. The Anchorage VEC has requested this change.DA 11-1318
Released: July 29, 2011